Landholders sign petition, register Inland Rail concerns

LANDHOLDERS whose properties fall within a 2km wide corridor identified for the Inland Rail project will take their objections to Federal Parliament.

About 200 people signed a petition at an information session in Pittsworth at the weekend, registering their concerns about the impact the preferred corridor will have on their properties.

The residents want a review of the Yelarbon to Gowrie route which was announced in Toowoomba last month as running through Millmerran and Pittsworth before linking up to Charlton.

Larry Pappin, whose property is likely to be impacted by the corridor, said a main concern was the lingering uncertainty about the final route.

The petition will be at the Pittsworth Post Office until Saturday.

"The petition is to bring about awareness not just in the local community but to the state and the nation that there's going to be huge cost blow-outs," Mr Pappin said.

The final AECOM report commissioned by the Australian Rail Track Corporation completed in April this year found the original route identified in 2010 was the cheapest at $1.23 billion while the Wellcamp-Charlton line was eight per cent dearer at $1.33 billion.

"The comparative cost estimate shows that the key material differentiators driving the cost are length of the track and resulting track structure, length of bridge structures required to cross creeks and rivers and most significantly, earthworks," it said.